The present invention relates to a retrieval apparatus for a library, for example.
It is difficult to retrieve an article as an object to be retrieved, e.g., a book from a library. In particular, as the number of books as objects to be retrieved is increased, or as retrieval conditions become complicated, retrieval is difficult to attain.
In order to solve the above problem, an attempt is made to constitute a database for objects to be retrieved using a computer system and to use it for article retrieval. For example, in a book management system, a book database is searched to obtain information indicating a particular book, e.g., a reference number of the book, and the book is extracted in accordance with this information.
However, in this system, two steps are required, that is, information for specifying a book (article) is obtained using the database, and the corresponding book (article) is located and extracted using the data. Creation of a large-scale database which can cover all the information of objects to be retrieved is not easy in consideration of the need for a computer system and the cost for preparing the database.